


Denying the Truth

by CarnivalofBrokenDolls (yourrhinestoneeyes)



Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Ed knows what Oswald did, Gen, dark ed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-25
Updated: 2016-11-25
Packaged: 2018-09-02 04:09:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8650801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yourrhinestoneeyes/pseuds/CarnivalofBrokenDolls
Summary: Ed knows that it wasn't Butch who had Isabella killed, but he also doesn't want to accept the obvious truth of who her real killer is.





	

Ed took his time going back home, to Oswald’s home, the home the two of them had shared for three months now. He needed the time to think, because despite all the evidence he had an impossible time accepting the truth of it all.

He logically should have known that it wasn’t Butch who killed Isabella. Butch had little access to money, most of his connections had turned on him, and if he had wanted revenge on Ed he would have come at him directly. The first person that should have come to his mind should have been Oswald, but he couldn’t let that enter his mind. He simply skipped all evidence no matter how obvious. Even after learning that Butch in fact was not her killer he was having an impossible time accepting that Oswald was the true killer.

Why would he have her killed?

He couldn’t wrap his mind around it no matter how hard he tried. He couldn’t think of a reason that the one person he trusted more than anyone else in his life would betray him in this way. He couldn’t imagine why Oswald would want to hurt him this deeply.

A nagging voice in his head mocked him, told him the older man had never cared about him in the first place. The voice told him that he had been mistaking pity for caring, just like he had done with Kristen.

He wanted desperately to believe it was wrong; he was wrong, the voice in his head was wrong, and the evidence no matter how obvious was wrong.

When he finally arrived at the house Oswald was there to greet him. He could see the obvious stress and worry written all over his face, he knew that it must have bothered him when he had hung up on him. 

“Ed you’re alright, I was worried that maybe Barbara got to you.”

He wrapped his arms around the taller man holding him close, despite himself Ed returned the embrace. He really wanted to believe that Oswald didn’t do it, he wanted to believe he was innocent of any wrong doing. He didn’t know why he wanted to believe one of the most dangerous people in Gotham was innocent, but deep down inside he wanted to believe it.

“If she showed up then I missed her completely.” The younger man lied.

If Oswald was going to lie, then he might as well lie.

The smaller man pulled away from their comfortable embrace, “So how did it go?”

“Fine”

He could sense his friend’s discomfort at how short and emotionless his response was, did Oswald know?

“Did he confess?”

Ed wanted to tell the truth, tell him that he knew everything. He wanted to yell at him that he knew what was really going on, he wanted to express how horrible he felt that he cut Tabitha’s hand off believing her and Butch had some part in Isabella’s death.

“Yes, he did, now if you’ll excuse me I would like to go to my room.”

Oswald backed up from him, a nervous smile appeared on his face. 

“Of course, perhaps we can talk more about it after you’ve rested for a bit.”

If Oswald told him one way or another he would believe it. He just needed to hear it from him, truth or lie he wanted to hear something from him. Something that would let Ed know he was important and respected in the older man’s eyes.

Yet Oswald said nothing more, he stood to the side clutching his cane in one hand and kept his eyes downcast.

Ed could hear the voice in his head laughing, the laughter caused a sharp pain. He quickly made his way upstairs and to his bedroom.

He found himself pacing the room with his eyes shut tightly and his hands clutching the sides of his head. He only stopped once he sensed somebody else in the room with him, somebody he hadn’t seen for quite some time, and hoped to not see again.

He looked at his other self, the version of himself he thought he was finally becoming after Kristen’s death. The version of himself dressed in all black, an easy calm and a mischievous nature about himself. His dark-self stood in the corner of the bedroom, he looked rather amused at the struggle that Ed was having with himself.

“Why are you here?” He angrily whispered towards the figure.

“Well somebody has to set you straight and it looks like I’m the one who has to do it.”

“Go away, I don’t need to hear from you.”

“No see that’s the problem, you do need to hear me out here. That guy down there, he doesn’t give a shit about you.”

“Shut up”

“Truth hurts, doesn’t it?”

“Oswald has nothing to do with this, he didn’t kill her.”

He knew better than that, he’d always known, but he’d been adamant to keep himself in the dark about the truth.

“You are literally lying to yourself right now. I told you ages ago that you can’t trust that guy, he isn’t your friend. He just pities you, you’re the little freak show from the GCPD that told stupid riddles and got on his nerves.”

No that was wrong, yes Oswald used to look down on him, but things had changed once Ed had saved his life. Once they spent more time together, got to know one another better. Those times Oswald had visited him in Arkham, sent him gifts and notes asking him if he was holding up alright.

“That isn’t right, he cares, and he respects me.”

His dark-self rolled his eyes.

“You’re worse than a virginal school girl. Jesus Christ dude he doesn’t care, he’s just pitying you. He gave you this little job you have just to make you feel like you’re important. You know that, I know that. You just want to believe he respects you, just like you wanted to believe he was in love with you.”

The last part caused him to tense up, his other-self laughed at him.

“Oh, shit it looks like I struck a nerve there. You remember that, remember in your office after you saved his life and you thought he was going to confess his love to you? You were so hopeful that he would say those three little words, it was worse than when you were stalking Kristen.”

Ed gritted his teeth as he glared towards the figure. 

“Go away, I remember what happened. I understand that he doesn’t feel that way about me, I had read the situation the wrong way.”

His double slowly walked closer to him, “so what makes you think you’re so right about this? You thought he was in love with you and now you don’t believe he killed your creepy girlfriend. You’ve been wrong twice now and you know it, we both do.”

His head was pounding. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to scream or cry, if he screamed then Oswald would hear him, and the last thing that he needed right now was for his friend to see him like this. It was the only thing about Ed that the older man didn’t know too much about.

“Go on and have a tantrum, break something. Throw a vase at me or better yet punch a window, then he’ll run up here and find you like this. He’ll see that you are seriously sick Eddie and then he’ll throw you out, maybe have you killed just like he had Isabella killed. You are nothing to him, nothing but a loyal little lap dog with a school boy crush. You can’t tell me that you’re just going to let him get away with this.”

“Please just stop”

“I’ll stop when you realize what we need to do.”

Ed sat down on the edge of the bed, he nervously raked his fingers back through his hair.

“Kill him, kill him, and show him that you aren’t just some toy he can fuck with.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yes”

Ed gave a slow accepting nod of his head. He could almost feel his dark-self patting him on the head before disappearing again. There was something cold about being completely alone, it made him want to go downstairs and find Oswald, but he knew he couldn’t do that anymore. He was going to have to learn how to exist without his longtime friend, he knew it would hurt, but this was what he had to do.


End file.
